The present disclosures relate to handover mechanisms, and more particularly, to a simplified beacon for media-independent handover (MIH) services.
IEEE 802 refers to a family of IEEE standards for local area networks and metropolitan area networks. Services and protocols specified in IEEE 802 map to the lower two layers of the seven-layer Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) networking reference model. The lower two layers correspond to the Data Link and Physical (PHY) layers. Furthermore, the Data Link layer is split into two sub-layers, corresponding to the Logical Link Control (LLC) and the Medium Access Control (MAC).
As an emerging standard, the IEEE 802.21 is to provide seamless handover between networks of the same type, as well as handover between different network types. Accordingly, the IEEE 802.21 is referred to as the Multi media Independent Handover or Media Independent Handover (MIH) standard. The standard is to allow for handing over to and from cellular (GSM, GPRS, EDGE, W-CDMA, CDMA, CDMA2000), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), Bluetooth and IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) networks. The emerging IEEE 802.21 standard became necessary in view of the following. Cellular networks and 802.11 networks employ handover mechanisms for handover within the same network and mobile IP employs handover mechanisms for handover across different networks of the same type. However, current IEEE 802 standards do not support for handover between different types of networks. In addition, existing IEEE 802 standards provide mechanisms for detecting and selecting network access points, but do not allow for detection and selection of network access points in a way that is independent of the network type.
In addition to the above, various problems exist in the art of wireless communication systems. The problems may include one or more of: 1) an absence of fast, reliable and universally recognized handover (HO) mechanisms between multi-protocol capable nodes; 2) complex and slow speed HO services between heterogeneous networks; 3) an excess of associated network overhead required for HO services; or 4) a lack of efficiency and capacity of wireless networks while providing new and added services for the mobile subscribers.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for overcoming the problems in the art as discussed above.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items. Skilled artisans will also appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve the understanding of the embodiments of the present invention.